The Battle of Ysta
Lasarine Mechanicum Rakurai |side2= 5173rd "Steel Bulls" Solar Auxilia Cohort Legio Ignis 21st Geno Madaskite 14th Henyamak Grenadiers |commander1 = First Sentinel Susanoo Empyon Ayatollah Herrud Bloodseeker K'uhul Vukaba Seventeenth Sentinel Yamon |commander2 = Lord Commander Aelus Earnad Harlech Marshal Sulla various Imperial Army commanders |forces1 = 400 vessels, all warships |forces2 = 600 vessels including over 100 mass-conveyers, Titan-barques and other transports |casual1 = Tolerable |casual2 = Catastrophic }} The Battle of Ysta was an engagement fought early on in the Wars of Expansion. It was a surprise offensive by Susanoo Empyon against a huge Loyalist muster. Attacking with a large flotilla of Harbingers, a Tendril of The Drowned and a force of Grave Stalkers, Empyon destroyed the Loyalists' hope of retaliating against Icarion's territory and prepared the ground for several more Insurrection conquests. Background While Alexandros had recalled the majority of the Astartes within his reach to suppress the revolt on Mars and shore up the defences of Segmentum Solar, he had not done so entirely. Recognising the need to strike at Icarion before he could solidify his hold over the Commena Cluster, he ordered a Shepherds of Eden fleet to make for the war world Ysta, where a host, dubbed the Suppression Muster, was gathering for this purpose. Marshal Earnad Harlech made all haste to Ysta with his Host, the Dawn Hammers, to assume the command he was to share with Lord Commander Aelus. An old and distinguished general, Aelus commanded some three Army regiments, with a cadre of Solar Auxilia to serve as his elite strike force and personal guard. To this force was added a further eight regiments, three Mechanicum taghma and 86 Titans of the Legio Ignis. Harlech, for his part, brought 10,000 Astartes and 200,000 auxiliary troops. A war flotilla of the Legio Gryphonicus and two further regiments were not far behind. This was not a force to defeat Icarion, to be sure, but it had sufficient strength to deny him a stranglehold on the Commena Cluster and perhaps further afield. Any foothold they gained would allow for further Loyalist counter-attacks. The Ysta system was made up of three planets, but only one had proved suitable for colonisation. The small outer planets were used only for communications and security installations, but Ysta Prime was heavily fortified both in the void and on its surface. As such, and lying at the intersection of four major Warp routes, it had long been the lynchpin of the subsector, and these factors made it the optimal staging point for the Suppression Muster. Harlech and Aelus knew that Icarion too would have comprehended all of this too, and his attention would soon turn to this world as surely as it had to the Commena Cluster. Consequently, they had made plans to move out before the last detachments were due to arrive, trusting to the element of surprise. The Harbingers’ foresight, after all, was not infallible. Yet these preparations were not enough, for on this world as on so many others, treachery had been committed in the Stormlord’s name. Out of the Black Almost to the hour of Raiden Athrawes' attack on Commena Prime, an Insurrectionist fleet broke the veil in the Ysta system. It was led by fifteen capital ships of the Harbingers; all were infamous and foreboding vessels to any fleetmaster, but one above all inspired fear in those who recognised it. It was a Shogun-class Battleship, a design unique to Akira’s shipyards. Long in service to the Ist Legion, few vessels save the Gloriana behemoths outclassed it, and it was named the Storm Unbound. This was the flagship of the First Sentinel; Susanoo Empyon himself had come to smite the would-be avengers. Clearing the minefields before them with scything volleys of las-fire, the Insurrectionists struck out having lost only a single escort vessel and two more heavily damaged. Swiftly they assumed a formation of three prongs, the battleships and grand cruisers sailing in loose pairs, surrounded by their lessers. Their targets had already been allocated, whether through foresight or intelligence given by traitorous hands. The Supression Muster had been caught in a state of half-preparedness, with many of their vessels still taking on troops and supplies from the surface. Worse still, the Dominus-class Taranis was still hanging in orbit, festooned with repair scaffolds after its flight from Sidon Ultra and unable to respond until these were removed. Further out, the warships of the 14th Henyamak Grenadiers ran out their guns and went to meet the Harbingers, hoping to buy time for their allies. Their bulk carriers, hitherto lying at anchor by Ysta Tertius, fell back as their five battleships advanced. The Harbingers, however, met the warships with only a single broadside, sailing clean past them. This was enough to destroy several of the lesser vessels, three cruisers and one battleship, with another crippled and tens of thousands dead. Yet the Henyamak fleet remained largely intact, and now the Ist Legion ships had exposed themselves. Here was a chance to inflict the same hurt that the Harbingers had done to the Halcyon Wardens over Madrigal. Those who understand the nature of this Galaxy will not be surprised that this tempting prospect was too good to be true. As the Harbingers struck and raced ahead, another fleet had torn its way into reality. Its mongrel ships were clad in sea green and copper, and they carried Drowned Men of the merciless XVIth Legion. This was the 27th Tendril, led by Herrud Bloodseeker and selected by Empyon himself for this task. Closing with the Henyamak vessels, they struck with a serpent’s speed, ripping away shields and mauling their engines. A few of the larger vessels, having weathered the initial onslaught, were boarded, but most were left to drift helplessly in the void as the Drowned gathered their strength and moved on. The surviving ships made to follow in pursuit, but the boarders were already at work, spreading mayhem with bizarre weapons that no Astartes had been known to wield before. Their assault craft and boarding torpedoes had been expertly targeted, and within an hour bridges, reactors and life-support systems had been seized. Those who were not killed out of hand were forced to watch as further arrivals hove into view on their sensors, their translation having gone ignored in the fighting. A Mechanicus war ark and its attendant vessels, bearing the sigil of Lasaris. Fire in the Void These new arrivals were as yet unknown to the defenders arrayed above Ysta’s day side, where frantic preparations were under way. The Taranis’ injuries were repaired as much as possible, before the repair crews used controlled explosions to jettison the scaffolds. Now it took its place in the lines, anchoring a portion of the flotilla adjacent to the Shepherds. Aelus and Harlech weighed the situation; the attacking fleet was still outnumbered, but it was leaner in its composition, almost entirely composed of ship-killing vessels while the Loyalists had dozens of bulk carriers and Munitorum vessels to protect. At every turn the Loyalists would have to choose between attacking enemy ships or defending their more vulnerable assets. Empyon’s forces had only to choose whether to seize or destroy. Their response was swift, reaching beyond the system. Their incoming allies were ordered to alter course within the Warp, lest they deliver themselves into the lap of the invaders. Aelus and Harlech pulled their fleet into formation above the mustering grounds, using the hemisphere’s two orbital defence installations to anchor it. Militia on Ysta itself, already on alert, were brought to full combat readiness, and the fleet assumed defensive positions above the planet. Satellite defence systems and the great surface-based batteries and void shields powered up, presenting a mighty obstacle to any landing attempt. Still they were vulnerable, however, especially the troops still on the ground. As the Harbingers drew near to the core world, a new and disquieting message came from the vessels orbiting over Ysta’s south pole. Marshal Sulla of the 21st Geno Madaskite reported a fleet approaching from below the solar plane, having hitherto been moving without power or shrouded by technological means. He deduced two things; that they must be Legiones Astartes vessels and that they could not be anything but a threat. Accordingly, he moved to head them off. Harlech cautioned him, but Aelus approved of Sulla’s decision. If the rhythm of Empyon’s scheme could be disrupted, it could only help the defenders. So Sulla’s fleet raced to intercept, and soon the interlopers had been identified: Grave Stalkers. With that, another part of the void came alive with murderous light, followed minutes later by the guns of the Ist Legion as their ships hurtled into range. Empyon’s fleet cut the void with ferocious volumes of fire, singling out battleships and cruisers to take most of the punishment. Shields strained, some bursting completely and allowing lasers and missiles to rip into the armour beneath. The defenders replied in kind, exacting a measure of vengeance. Aelus had resolved to envelop the Harbingers with his own battleships, for though the sides were evenly matched, the Imperials still outnumbered the enemy enough that he could keep a sizeable portion back. Setting forth, he took with him sixteen battleships and strike cruisers, accompanied by fifty lesser ships. His command vessel, the Steadfast, forced back the Ist Legion battleship Fury of the First Son, blasting apart three frigates and crippling the cruiser Tempest as it closed with the Storm Unbound. As ships on both sides rolled and burned in the void, the battle hung in the balance. Aboard the Ironclad Shield of Meriac Harlech bided his time, waiting for the opening that would allow his warriors to deploy for maximum effect. On top of that, he dared not weaken the defensive blockade and expose the planet itself. Then came word from the Madaskites. Sulla reported that his fleet had taken losses which made it untenable to remain apart from the main force, and back they came, pursued by the XVthLegion ships. With the Insurrectionists already inflicting heavy casualties, this was simply more bad news but manageable. Few cared to observe how many Madaskite ships were returning. In any case, whatever devices the Grave Stalkers were employing fouled auspex scans, and the nearest vessels made room for their comrades and began picking their targets. The chance to loose their volleys never came. As the Madaskites drew level, their guns spoke, hammering the flanks of their erstwhile allies. Several ships were crippled before they could even demand an answer, but to those further away, the K’uhul - the commander of the Grave Stalkers - now spoke. Across the vox he named himself Vukaba and demanded that the defenders see the futility of resistance, for Icarion had ordained their destruction months ago. Now the pieces fell into place. Sulla’s actions had been a ruse, one that had opened a gaping wound in the Loyalist formation, and into it the Grave Stalkers poured. Cry Havoc The Grave Stalkers - twenty-four cruisers, frigates and destroyers, accompanying a single battleship - were like a blaze breaching a firebreak, ripping apart the ships weakened by their allies. Most spread out through the exposed fleet, but Vukaba’s flagship, now identified as the Blood Will Tell, lingered briefly. Silvery projectiles shot from its starboard flank to fall upon the planet itself. Far below, on the mustering grounds, troops who had been waiting for the battle above them to play out were struck down by the battalion as the dreaded life-eater virus swept through their ranks. Even as Vukaba watched, a black stain of rot spread across the surface of the world. It would not penetrate the sealed enclaves in the cities where many more soldiers sheltered, but it was a satisfying blow nonetheless. Then, before the great batteries below could get a fix on his position and the vengeful Shepherds could catch him, Vukaba ordered his vessels back into the fray. Loyalist fighter craft were already spilling from bulk carriers and racing up from the surface, but the Grave Stalkers had long mastered this mode of warfare. Dispersing, they formed up into four arrowhead flotillas and proceeded to sow havoc where the Loyalists were weakest. Vox-channels were overlaid with piercing static whines that drove mortals to despair. Phosphor-laced cluster munitions interfered with both auspex and the naked eye, as well as shredding hundreds of fighter craft and casting their squadrons into disarray. Larger vessels, softened up by heavy cannon strikes from the lead ships, were targeted with haywire and virus-laden torpedoes, sowing mayhem and death within their hulls. On the ships raced, spewing all this and more conventional ordnance as they went, never deigning to enter sustained engagements. Unnoticed behind the battle already playing out between Aelus and Empyon’s vessels, Herrud came into range and brought his fleet around to flank Aelus’ ships. Suddenly the trap was inverted, the hammer and anvil turned upon the Loyalists. The two Legions’ ships may have been matched by Aelus’, but they unleashed rare and devastating weapons against them. Volkite cascades, vortex missiles and other, less identifiable weapons, presumably unearthed beneath Madrigal and put at the disposal of Icarion’s favoured warriors, all were used to smash Aelus’ fleet. Caught in overlapping fields of fire, the Army battleships had great chunks blasted from their decametre-thick armour, making them easy prey for the dropships and Caestus Assault Rams which flooded the space between the great vessels. The Lightning Bearers’ foresight gave them a devastating advantage here, lending near-impossible precision to the laser and torpedo volleys with which they screened their boaridng craft. Aboard five of Aelus’ ships, the 5173rd Solar Auxilia Cohort, known to history as the Steel Bulls, confronted a foe they had never battled before: Space Marines. Corridors and chambers became tableaux of horrors, lit by flame and las-fire. The Steel Bulls held and fought with commendable discipline against enemies who had put Orkish hordes to flight, but they were terminally outmatched. As the Harbingers advanced, the cries of the wounded were drowned out by howling vibro-katana, the squeals of the volkite weapons they favoured and the percussive thunder of bolters. The Harbingers’ foresight, once romanticised as their “grace”, made them nightmare foes. Auxiliaries laid careful ambushes, only to find their enemies tearing apart the walls with grav-guns and chainswords to reach them. In choked passages, a Harbinger would weave through a torrent of las-fire to massacre his attackers and make precise kill-shots without even looking to see his victims. Soon, the first five ships to be boarded had fallen silent, and three more shortly after that. Aelus ordered a retreat, only for the monstrous war ark to fall upon them with its retinue of Mechanicum ship-killers. Only six of the original twenty battleships made it back to the second line - though in truth this had become a loose scattering of formations - and scarcely any of their lessers had survived at all. Those not taken by the enemy tumbled helplessly in the void, bleeding atmosphere or scattered in fields of debris. Aelus himself died on the sword of Captain Kayiri of the 42nd Company, his last words damning the Harbingers for their treachery. The remaining Loyalists fared little better. The Grave Stalkers and treacherous Madaskites had lost ships, for the Imperial fleet remained formidable, but the trail of devastation they had left made it impossible to pin them down without risking all the formation’s integrity. Now the Madaskites made to withdraw and reform, while the Grave Stalkers hunted. Munitorum and Titan vessels were cut out from the warships like prey animals from the herd, and boarding actions commenced by the Grave Stalkers, shrieking Reapers rampaging through a dozen vessels. Behind them came squads of Grave Stalkers leading Lasarine automata, combat servitors and skitarii. Wraiths, equipped with concealment fields, eluded even the augmented senses of Mechanicum cyborgs until they struck. As violence spread through the vast holds, the secutarii and tech-priests of Ignis fared little better than the Solar Auxilia. Rout and Defiance The true and nightmarish extent of the enemy’s schemes became clear. The Emperor’s weapons were not to be merely denied to His soldiers, but taken for use by Icarion’s armies. On Ysta itself, Army and taghmata personnel endeavoured to get offworld with increasing desperation, but as their transports reached the high atmosphere they were set upon by wings of interceptors and fighters, sending hundreds back to the surface in flames. Bombers screamed down to ravage airfields, stranding millions on Ysta. They did not strike at the hives, wary of the mighty guns that stood there, but it was increasingly clear that the Insurrectionists did not mean to break the fortress world open. Now, far above, battle was joined on two fronts as the Lasarine behemoth smashed headlong into the Loyalist ranks. The Drowned and Harbingers spread out in its wake. Ships died in their dozens with every passing minute, and the Loyalist defence crumbled under the onslaught. The XVIth Legion ships attacked as they had before, ripping into battleships and cruisers with lethal efficiency, before seizing the vulnerable carrier ships that tried to lumber away. The Harbingers, however, advanced on their cousins. The Shepherds ships, led by the Shield of Meriac, met their enemies with bullish defiance and the fighting took on a new, bitter savagery. The Shepherds held the Harbingers at bay, but they were too few to do the same with the Drowned and the war ark of Lasaris, now identified as the Formulae of Eradication, closing in on Orbital Station Gamma. The Formulae forged a path ahead of the XVIth Legion, its mighty shields and storeys-thick armour weathering the barrage of fire from Gamma. Once it was close enough, the Drowned slipped from its shadow. Two of their number, strange vessels of unknown origin, had been fitted with nova cannon for planetary assault duties. Covered by their fellows, they turned these weapons upon the station, and Gamma simply vanished in a plume of fire. Briefly, a second sun flared in the skies of Ysta. Across the hemisphere, Station Sigma had fallen prey to a Grave Stalkers attack. Vukaba had sent a hundred Reapers aboard ahead of Ursarax and Adescularis troops, but as Gamma’s commanders attempted to halt the patternless killing, a squad of Wraiths went to work. Unlooked-for in the carnage, they infiltrated the climate-control facilities and plunged the station into a lethal cold. The flesh of servitor and mortal alike failed and froze, and by the time the Grave Stalkers entered the control rooms and loosed the station’s guns upon the defenders, the last personnel had fallen to hypothermia. In just a few minutes, Sigma’s guns had accounted for three bulk carriers, two battleships and eight cruisers, with an unknown number of lesser ships. Again, this crime owed much to Sulla’s duplicity, for he had furnished the Grave Stalkers with the codes needed to swiftly carry off this operation. With that the Imperials had lost one of the linchpins of their defence, and another had torn a growing hole in their ranks. In their desperation, the Loyalists ordered surface batteries to pulverise Sigma before it could do further harm. The Grave Stalkers, however, escaped retribution, retrieved by teleport as soon as the station’s main cannons were emptied. Harlech knew the fight to be lost, and with the grim rationality of a Legiones Astartes commander, he decided upon two actions to be undertaken at all costs. Sulla was to be punished for his deceit, and the Harbingers flagship was to be boarded. Harlech would inflict as much pain upon the arch-traitors as possible before death took him and his brothers. At the same time they would buy time for the remainder of the fleet to scatter. Empyon too recognised the looming confrontation, for the Storm Unbound advanced, sweeping wreckage aside with its armoured prow. Sulla, fleeing for the safety of the Harbingers’ formation, was brought to justice swiftly and brutally by the strike cruiser Adamant Lance. Breaking his ship’s back with lance-strikes, it launched a coup de grace bombardment of melta torpedoes, burning it from the inside out. The Adamant Lance and its crew paid for their valour, cut apart as the Drowned fell upon it. However, its duty of punishment was fulfilled, and it accounted for more traitor ships before the end. The Imperial formations came apart, many of the battleships sacrificing themselves in an effort to shield the escape of their fellows or leading small groups away from the battle. They were aided in this by the wariness of the Harbingers; the Shepherds were overmatched, but still a credible threat. Empyon’s fleet pulled back together to meet their cousins. As the Shield of Meriac thundered through the IstLegion vessels, crunching through several escorts and destroyers as it went, Harlech and his warriors swore their final oaths of moment. The Shepherds were outclassed and outgunned, with even the Shield of Meriac no match for the Storm Unbound. But guile and fury carried the Shield of Meriac to its nemesis, other vessels racing ahead and training all their guns on the enemy flagship. They were all crippled or destroyed in heir audacious charge, with only the Shield of Meriac reaching the enemy flagship. Under the onslaught of its lances the shields of the Storm Unbound, having held throughout the battle, finally burst. Even as the Shield of Meriac came apart under the Harbingers’ massed gunfire, its teleportarium carried Harlech’s chosen companies aboard Empyon’s flagship, the rest spilling from the dying ship in Stormbirds and Thunderhawks. It is reckoned that with their target’s shields fallen, a full third of the ship’s four thousand warriors made their way aboard. The rest were blasted to atoms by interceptors and fighters as they braved the crossing. Fighting their way through tercios of Rakurai and companies of Harbingers to reach the bridge, the Shepherds repaid the traitors in kind for the massacres they had perpetrated on Loyalist vessels. Akiran battle-automata were sent against them, with weapons that could and did crumple even Astartes armour, yet the Shepherds were unrelenting. The cut and thrust of the melee, the hewing down of monsters with sword and mace, was what the old VIIth had been wrought for. They climbed over the dead when corpses piled up, slaying all who crossed their path. Fervour drove them, for though their fate was sealed, they would die as shields of the common man, the purpose that the Shepherds held themselves to above all. Their fury carried them almost to the bridge itself, and they were only halted by a cadre of Volta terminators. Sightless, but gifted of peerless foresight, these warriors raised their volkite culverins and reduced the boarders to ash and scorched plate by the dozen. Still the Shepherds came on, shields braced against the firestorm, their fury unabated even in the face of such destruction. Their shells hammered and finally sundered Cataphractii plate, and they waded through the ashes of their brethren to cleave the Volta’s eyeless helms. Harlech’s warriors ultimately cast down the last of the sightless killers, but half their fighting strength was gone, and now the Sentinel’s veteran squads entered the battle. The Marshal himself bled from a dozen wounds, his shield mangled beyond use by a Castellax’s claws and his proud warplate scorched and tattered. Yet still he stood, still he slew all who came before him, until finally he stood face to face the enemy he sought most of all. It is said that Empyon saluted the defiant knight before their weapons met, granting him the dignity of a proper duel, for Harlech was the last of the boarders still standing. What is certain is that they fought, two blademasters steeped in very different schools of combat, Akiran-forged katana against Eskalan longsword. For all Harlech’s courage and prowess, his wounds told against him, and Empyon was a superlative swordsman even among the elite of the Legions. Whirling through the ash and fire, he was unceasingly on the offensive. He did not come away unscathed, as Harlech opened a gaping wound in his side, but in doing so the Shepherd had exposed himself. Empyon’s blade sheared through Harlech’s chest, splitting his hearts and lungs as it went. The master of the Dawn Hammers fell, the last Astartes to perish in the defence of Ysta. Broken Blades Empyon’s victory was not unblemished, but it was overwhelming. Outside the Storm Unbound, the fighting was largely finished. With his superior occupied, 17th Sentinel Yamon had briefly assumed command, completing the destruction of the Loyalist vessels that remained and assigning ships to run down those who fled. The Suppression Fleet was shattered, with hundreds of vessels disabled but largely intact. To the crews of these ships, a stark choice was given: turn their coats and slay their captains, those lackeys of the Emperor who had led them to this slaughter, or join their comrades in death. Many ships complied, and those that resisted were boarded by the Astartes and their Mechanicum allies and systematically wiped out or enslaved. If Icarion was to accept the allegiance of his former enemies, that allegiance was to be given without reservation. The same offer was made to those marooned on Ysta, though with its fearsome array of surface-to-orbit guns and surviving orbital stations, Empyon did not care to waste his soldiers in a direct attack. Instead, as the majority of the invaders departed the system to annex its neighbours, Ysta was left to support a population swelled by millions of soldiers and other personnel, one that was not meant to linger there for more than two weeks. Hunger made desperate people, no matter how well its rulers attempted to ration food. Within a week, fighting had broken out among both the soldiers and civilians. Within a month, the Imperial Governor was dead, and Icarion’s representatives assumed control of a world unwillingly but irreversibly bound to the Stormlord. On the surviving stations, up in orbit, the crews were left to starve. Ysta had been the last hope for a swift reversal of Icarion’s gains, but he and Empyon had turned it into a profitable conquest, creating a buffer zone around the Commena Cluster even when the conquest of that region was ongoing. The haul of ships stood at fourteen battleships, thirty one cruisers and perhaps three times that number of frigates, destroyers and escorts. Of Ignis’ Titans, the Insurrectionists seized at least 50, and the quantity of tanks, turrets and other such war spoil they took, to say nothing of personnel, is difficult to even estimate. Mechanicum flotillas arrived soon after, scouring the system of its wrecks, salvaging those that were not beyond saving and breaking down the rest for raw materials. Organic remains were likewise reprocessed. Ysta was garrisoned anew. The Stormlord’s war machine grew, more weapons ready to be turned upon the empire he had done so much to build. Empyon's ambush served not only to foil the Loyalist retaliation, but to pave the way for further conquests. The psychological hammer blow was enough to break the resolve of many fleets and planetary governments. The survivors of Ysta found themselves isolated and hunted, caught up in a massive offensive as regiments sworn to Icarion descended on exposed worlds. Many worlds fell to Chapter and company-sized detachments of Astartes, shorn of the strength and support to resist them. Within months, Ysta appeared as only the first of a veritable avalanche of catastrophes, joined by Vaspel, Anvillus and Catachan to name only a few. More immediately, it ensured that nothing could be done by the Warmaster's forces to spare the Commena Cluster. Nor could they interfere with Icarion’s next objective. Category:Wars of Expansion Category:B